Sunday, 6 January 2013

New year's resolutions and fresh starts have been on my mind lately, for obvious reasons. Facebook is covered in posts of how to make the new year better, how to make yourself better, how to do better. Blogs fill up with good advice on various things. A new year feels like turning a new page in life, like you have a blank canvas and all those other clichés, and you can start again.

For the first time in years, I've actually made a few resolutions of my own. Actually they're just small changes I want to do, and the decision just happened to be made around the beginning of the new year - probably because of all the inspiration flying around.

Today I read yet another person's musings on the new year, in which she said that she simply wants to be happy. This got me thinking. It reminded me of something that I was exposed to a lot some years ago, when doing research before my exchange year in high school. The tagline of one of the exchange programs was "The best year of you life". While the tagline in that specific context may not be ideal - while it's great from a sellers perspective, it does create an awful lot of pressure on the teenager who's struggling in a foreign country - it came to mind now, when thinking of various new year's resolutions.

Shouldn't that be the most important resolution for each new year - to make it the best year of your life so far? To be happier, healthier, kinder, whatever, just be more of it than last year. If last year was awful, then it shouldn't take much to make this year better, and if it was great, then find ways to make it even more so.

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This is where I write about things that are important to me, that play a part in my life, or that just happen to be on my mind. Common topics include travel, languages, cultural differences and pretty things. Thanks for reading!